Trial and Error
by Victorian Asylum
Summary: Post-Nevermore. A series a one-shots revolving around Max and Maya's growing relationship. Could be considered a follow-up to 'Safer to Hate Her'. Published in no particular order.
1. Forgiving

"You're going to have to stop blaming yourself sometime, Max."

I tore my gaze away from the flickering white snow flakes whipping around outside the window to face the person behind me. Absentmindedly I flexed my sore hand, which I had been resting my hand on. It was all pins and needles as the blood cam rushing back.

"Kinda hard not to blame yourself when the fault is your own," I answered.

Maya sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "You're 98% human, Max. And being human means you can't do everything."

"You just don't get it! I saved the whole fucking world. Billions of people are alive because of me, yet I couldn't protect one of my family members? Some hero I am."

Maya made her way to the window sill I occupied and took a seat next to me. She glanced out the window at the flurries of snow before turning to me. "And that's what you don't get. You saved the world."

"But I. Didn't. Save. Angel." I practically growled. "I grew up with her. I helped raise her. I protected her. When she got captured, I saved her. But not this time. She always counted on me to come rescue her, and this time I failed her. I screwed up."

"This is reality, though. Not some movie. You can't always save everyone. Sometimes people have to be lost to give you a foundation to push forward on. To give you the strength you need to rise above it all. To win."

Maya reached out to grab my hand but I wrenched it away, giving my eyes a harsh rub. I wasn't going to cry. I wasn't. Crying solved nothing. Crying wasn't going to bring her back. _Neither will brooding, _the Voice chimed in, but I promptly ignored it.

"So you're saying she's a martyr. No, she can't be. It's not fair. She had her whole life ahead of her. Why couldn't it have been me instead? Everyone used to want me dead anyway, why not satisfy them?"

"You have your whole life ahead of you, too." Maya said softly. "And I think Angel would want you to forgive yourself and move on. She had faith in you, that you would prevail. You didn't let her down."

"Oh, but I did. I let everyone down." I shook my head, rapidly blinking away tears. "I would give anything to get her back."

"Even the lives of innocent people?" Maya asked.

I glanced at her. Would I- no, _could_ I trade away a world of souls for the life of one child, even if they were my entire world? "I-I-" I paused to swallow the rising lump in my throat. I tried to keep it together, to no avail. I broke down sobbing.

"Hey, it's okay," Maya whispered, drawing me into a tight hug. I cried into her shoulder. I cried away months worth of guilt and frustration and anger and sorrow. I cried until my throat was raw and I felt as if I'd cut myself open. Maybe it was a step towards healing, or at least it was steering me in the right direction. But it was going to be a long time before I could really let it all go.

**X X X**

**Author's Notes: **I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself. I guess since I'm already doing a Fax story, I felt like I needed some other pairing (that doesn't really exist, I don't think) to kind of vent off steam. Well, this pairing is growing on me, oddly enough. So I decided to base this off of them. You could say this whole thing will be a companion to 'Safer to Hate Her', but obviously set in the future where Max and Maya actually pursued a relationship.

I guess we'll just have to see where this goes. . .


	2. Win Some, Lose Some

"I can't believe you."

"I had to. No one else was around to help."

"You took on five big, burly men. You didn't stand a chance."

"Neither did that lady they were mugging! I couldn't stand by and let them do that or worse to her. You should know by now it isn't in my nature."

"Okay, so you helped her get away. And then I had to call the cops to save your sorry ass. God Max, you are such an idiot."

I almost lashed out a stinging retort, but managed to hold my tongue. Instead, I shifted slightly, stifling a groan as a fresh wave of pain coursed through me. Broken ribs were something I was accustomed to by now. But man, did those guys pack a wallop. They were like walking tanks.

As it was, Maya and I were riding in the back of a police cruiser, on our way to the nearest hospital, which wasn't very near at all. I had put up quite the fight when the cops said I needed to go to the hospital. Unfortunately, I lost that battle too.

I sighed and closed my eyes. I was tired, after all that, despite all of my injuries. Besides, after spending over a year sleeping just about everywhere, curling up on the seat of a cop car with my head in Maya's lap felt like a luxury.

"You have a concussion too, you know."

"That's nice. Leave me be."

"That means you can't fall asleep."

I opened one eye and craned my neck to look at her. She was smiling, like she was enjoying this. I bet she thought this was my just desserts. What I deserved for biting off more than I could chew. "Look, even though I feel like I've been thrown through a wood chipper, this is the most relaxed I've ever been. I'm free. The Flock and everyone else is safe and sound and the world is no longer under attack. Just let me have this."

"Fine. But you're not haunting me if you die, you hear?"

**X X X**

**Author's Notes: **Short story is short. I don't know, I just had this idea of Max still trying to help out people in need, because even though the world is safe, it's still a mess and people still need her. I also thought it would be fun to have her lose. After all, she does have a tendency to get herself into sticky situations. Why not have her get her ass kicked while I'm at it?


	3. Changeup

"You actually went through with it," I said, not quite sure how to start up the conversation. I knew I had to say something. Unfortunately, eloquence was not a factor a my personality, and it certainty didn't appear when trying to compliment someone. Because Maximum Ride doesn't do compliments.

Maya shrugged. "I don't see why you thought I would be lying when I said I would. It's not like it was emotionally challenging or anything like that."

I frowned slightly, rubbing the back of my neck. "You know that isn't what I meant. But whatever. You look... nice. It seems like your style."

Earlier in the day, after much internal debate, Maya had gone and gotten her hair cut. Of course, she didn't tell me exactly _what _she was going to do to her hair. When she came out, almost all of her hair had been cut off, and the natural color was gone, replaced by a rather lovely shade of auburn.

Maya rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I swear Max, you are hopeless."

"Hey," I said defensively. "Most of my life has been spent running from experiments, protecting a handful of kids and insulting adults. It's not like I ever had a crash course in compliments. It's not a very active part of my personality. Plus we were usually sweaty, dirty and bloody. Anything nice I had to say was usually just a thought, nothing more."

Maya ran a hand through her newly styled hair. "Somehow I believe you. But I don't believe that part of your personality doesn't exist. It's there somewhere. We'll have to work on it."

**X X X**

**Author's Notes: **So, another short little installment. I figured that Maya would change her looks sometime in the future. More than a magenta streak, I mean. I wanted Max to be kind of awkward, and unsure of what to say. After all, she never really had to compliment people much anyhow. So there you have it.**  
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End file.
